Federally Funded Public Housing Projects
—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Second Inaugural Address, January 1937
New Deal agencies, including the HOLC and the FHA, met the needs of many existing homeowners and those Americans financially able to purchase homes but did little to address the housing needs of the poor, including many African Americans and ethnic minorities who lived in urban slums. As part of the Second New Deal, Congress passed the Housing Act of 1937 to create jobs, clear slums, and fund public housing projects.
Public housing complexes were originally intended to provide short-term and affordable housing for middle-class Americans. The idea was that residents would live in public housing for a few years, save their earnings, and then transition to the suburbs. But the projects became permanent housing for the poorest members of society, mostly minority families, and government lending policies contributed to this residential segregation.
Take Notes
Watch the video on the history of federally funded public housing and answer the following questions.
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